New York's governor removes DA in Cornell rape allegations, appoints AG Letitia James to take over
The investigation had initially been closed without charges in 2024.
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New York’s governor and attorney general were set to give an update Friday morning about the investigation into a woman’s allegations that she was gang raped at a Cornell University fraternity house
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday she appointed the office of Attorney General Letitia James as the special prosecutor to oversee the investigation, saying she had lost faith in the local district attorney’s ability to handle the case.
The investigation had initially been closed without charges in 2024.
Last month, the woman filed a civil lawsuit and Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten reopened the investigation. He has since been bombarded by criticism that he abandoned the original investigation too quickly.
The attorney general will oversee the investigation and, if warranted, present evidence to a grand jury, Hochul said.
“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” she said in a statement Thursday.
Messages left for Van Houten were not immediately returned late Thursday.
The case has roiled the Ivy League campus and raised questions about its response and the larger issue of how sexual assaults are handled on college campuses.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, told campus police in November of 2024 that she was assaulted, then discussed it with the university’s internal investigators as part of Cornell’s disciplinary process.
The lawsuit against seven fraternity brothers, the university, the Chi Phi fraternity and others alleges that she was plied with drugs and alcohol, then subjected to sex acts by a group of men while she was partially or entirely incapacitated. One of the men sent a social media message to other fraternity members alerting them to what was happening, and inviting people to take part, according to the lawsuit.
Lawyers for two of the men she is suing have denied they participated in a sexual assault. One said his client hadn’t touched the woman. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the other men or their representatives have been unsuccessful.
